CGIAR Gender News

How a new generation of women are changing wheat science

Harvesting green fodder from dual-purpose wheat, Uttarakhand, India

Photo credit: ILRI/Sapna Jarial

Over the past 12 years, the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum award has supported 66 early-career women scientists as they build a stronger, more inclusive community of wheat scholars fighting hunger worldwide.

For Charlotte Rambla, winning the 2022 Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early-Career Award was an “incredible, unreal experience.”

Each year, the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) honors five to six female early-career wheat researchers with the WIT award in recognition of scientific excellence and leadership potential. With the award, women scientists receive leadership training and professional development opportunities meant to support them as they join the community of scholars who are fighting hunger worldwide.​

“The training I’ve received with this award has been one of the best experiences of my professional life,” said Rambla, an Italian native who recently completed her Ph.D. at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation in Australia and has begun a postdoctoral appointment at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. “Meeting these incredible women working in the same field, sharing our knowledge and experiences, it felt like we belonged together and were working toward one shared purpose; We are all joined by this same passion for agriculture and science.”